Viewing MainBoss Users

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You view user authorizations with Administration | MainBoss Users. The window contains the following:

Details section: Shows the list of current users.

Authentication Credential: Click this heading to sort the login name or SQL Server name under which the user accesses the MainBoss database. Click again to reverse the order (from ascending to descending or vice versa).

Contact: Click this heading to sort by the contact name associated with each user. Click again to reverse the order.

Description: Click this heading to sort the list by description. Click again to reverse the order.

Apply Filter: Lets you set up a filter to select which records should be shown in the table. For more information, see Table Filters.

New User: Opens a window to create a new user record. Fields in the new record will either be blank or assigned default values (as specified in the Defaults for Users section).

Only someone with SQL Server Administration privileges can register new users with SQL Server. You will receive an error message if you try to add a new user but do not have appropriate permissions.

Details: Lists basic information taken from the selected record.

Security Role: Lists the security roles associated with the selected user.

Advanced: Lists any advanced information associated with the selected user record.

: This drop-down button offers several possible actions:

Edit: Opens an editor window to let you edit the selected record.

View: Opens an editor window where you can examine the selected record.

Restore: Restores a deleted record. This button is only active if the viewer is in All mode and if you've selected a deleted record. When you click Restore, MainBoss will open a window that lets you examine the contents of the deleted record. If you save the record and close the window, the record will be restored to the Active list.

Evaluate Security As: Lets you see the effect of the selected user's security roles. See below for more details.

: Deletes the record that's currently selected.

: Prints information about users. For more information, see Printing User Records.

: Lets you export data from this table or import data from a file (provided that the file is in an acceptable format). For more information, see Importing and Exporting Data in Tables.

The button has an accompanying drop-down list containing the following:

Export: Exports data in XML format.

Import: Imports data from a properly formatted file.

Save XML Schema: Writes an XML schema for this table into a specified file.

: Lets you search through the list of records for a particular record. For more information, see Searching for a Particular Record. The button has an accompanying drop-down list containing the following:

Find Next: Uses the same search condition(s) as your most recent search and finds the next record in the table that matches the condition(s). If the search reaches the end of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the start of the table and continues the search.

Find Previous: Same as Find Next except that it goes backward in the table. If the search reaches the start of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the end of the table and continues the search.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Defaults for Users section: Shows any defaults to be used when creating new user records.

Edit Defaults: Opens a window to let you change the displayed default values.

: Updates the list to reflect any recent changes.

Evaluating Security Roles: When you assign security roles to a user, it can be difficult to figure out the effect of those roles: what the user can and can't do with the roles you've assigned.

To make it easier to see the effects of a person's security roles, you can use the Evaluate Security As button. If you select a user in the Users table, then click this button, your MainBoss session changes to have the same security permissions as the selected user. If certain types of data are invisible to that user, they'll become invisible to you too; if certain buttons are disabled, they'll be disabled for you too.

Evaluate Security As is a very powerful feature. It is only available to people with the Administration security role.

Evaluate Security As gives you the same security roles as the selected user, but it does not change who you are. In particular, you keep your own set of assigned requests, work orders and purchase orders.

Note: If you use this feature to evaluate the security roles of someone who doesn't have Administration or AdministrationView, the first thing that will happen is that you lose permission to see Administration | MainBoss Users. This may look as if you're being told that you don't have permission to use Evaluate Security As; however, it really means that the person you're evaluating doesn't have that permission. You may also receive unusual error messages because of conflicts between your own security roles and the roles of the person you're evaluating.

Once you've examined what the user can and can't do, you can return to your own security roles by going to the Session menu and clicking Reset to user YOURNAME security.

For more information on user records, see Users. For more information on creating or editing user records, see Editing MainBoss User Records. For how to print user records, see Printing User Records. For general information on table viewers, see Using Table Viewers.

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